Wimbledon 2022: Kyrgios straight man falls flat against imperious Djokovic

When Nick Kyrgios won a first Grand Slam title back in January his doubles partner was hailed as “the only guy who can calm him down”.

So where, apoplectic All England Club bosses might have wondered, was Thanasi Kokkinakis on Tuesday when the wild man of tennis exploded, spitting at a fan and abusing officials?

The answer is that Kokkinakis had important business in the Wimbledon singles as he prepared to face No1 seed Novak Djokovic.

Maybe no one could have prevented Kyrgios from self-combusting, as he’s done throughout his career, but his fellow Australian certainly gelled with him at the pair’s home Open in Melbourne, with Kyrgios quipping about the influence of the other member of the so-called Special Ks: “I’m getting up at 7am every day. Never been so professional.”

Not that their charge to the title was incident-free. The fitness trainer of beaten opponents earlier in the competition, accusing Kyrgios of hitting a ball at one of his men, threatened to fight the pair. The raucous crowd noise whipped up by the Special Ks was criticised in the semi-final and again in the final, when fans had to be ejected by stewards.

Kokkonakis is due to revive the doubles partnership today but in yesterday’s first game on Centre he was on best behaviour and, alas for the Kyrgios-curious in the crowd, quite flat.

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To be fair, Djokovic could have done that to many. His scratchy performance on opening day was thoroughly banished by a ruthless 6-1, 6-4, 6-2 victory. Yesterday marked 1,812 days since the champion, going for four titles in a row, last lost in SW19. Andy Murray has had three kids in that time, for goodness sake.

The 26-year-old Kokkinakis -